Registered sex offender convicted of upskirting

LANCASTER, Calif. — A man who used a cellphone camera to secretly record low-angle video under the skirts of women in Lancaster and other Antelope Valley communities was convicted today of crimes that could leave him locked up for more than 23 years.

Mylyn Johnson, 29, was found guilty of one felony count each of sexual battery by fraud and false imprisonment and 12 misdemeanor counts of video or photography of a person in undergarments, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney’s Office.

A Superior Court jury in Lancaster deliberated about two hours before reaching verdicts. Johnson was acquitted of a count of second-degree commercial burglary.

Johnson is facing 23 years and four months in prison at an Oct. 8 sentencing hearing, Robison said.

Johnson, described by authorities as a registered sex offender, was arrested after someone reported him taking video under an unsuspecting woman’s skirt at a Target in Lancaster March 16, sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Hudson said.

The felony charges stem from a victim Johnson held against her will at a Kmart in Lancaster by telling her he was a store security guard and wanted to search her because she was suspected of shoplifting, authorities said. He then videotaped her after ordering her to expose part of her buttocks, authorities said earlier.

“Detectives believe that suspect Johnson secretly recorded the women throughout the Antelope Valley, including the Salvation Army store, Lancaster International Shopping Mall and aboard a Metrolink train,” Hudson said.

Johnson also was suspected of recording video of women at Union Station and Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.